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Fair Trade (episode)
A meeting with an old friend lands Neelix in an ever-deepening hole of trouble. Summary For some time, Neelix has been trying to expand his usefulness; he has been considering roles as an engineer, or a security officer, or some other more official job. As the crew of the arrive at a dense, menacing cloud barrier, the Nekrit Expanse, they stop off at a space station administered by Bahrat to take on supplies. Neelix advises caution. During the away mission to the station, Neelix meets up with an old friend, Wixiban, who, as is later revealed, was in a smuggling operation with him a long time ago. After the jovial reunion, Wix and Neelix get to talking. While Neelix impresses his old friend with the tales of Voyager, he finally admits that he thinks he may not be needed anymore. His knowledge of space goes only as far as the Nekrit Expanse, and he is no longer useful as a guide. As a result, he has been trying to acquire a map of the area on this station. Wix says he knows where to get one. He also tells a different story, one of great difficulty and burdensome debts. Playing upon Neelix's sympathies for him, he asks for a favor: he wants Neelix to get a Voyager shuttlecraft which he and Wix will use to complete a secret transaction. He explains that he is selling medical supplies, and wants to do it in secret to avoid the station master's twenty percent cut of the profits. All Neelix has to do is hide this information from the crew. Neelix agrees. What Wix doesn't explain is that the medical supply also has a non-medical use which is the reason for the revenue; it's a narcotic. Unfortunately, this does not become apparent until they meet the buyer in a deserted part of the station. (The buyer is a drug smuggler, introduced to the audience earlier when he tries to sell some drugs to Chakotay and Tom Paris.) The buyer then attempts to get the drugs for nothing by trying to kill them. This results in a firefight, and Wix kills the buyer in self-defense with a phaser he took from the shuttle. In a panic, the two of them beam out and fly the shuttle back to Voyager – leaving the dead body to be found by Bahrat's men. Bahrat later charges Chakotay and Tom Paris with murder, since a Federation phaser's energy signature was detected. Neelix is furious at being betrayed, but Wix soothes him with more emotional manipulation, and convinces him to cover it up and not tell anyone on the ship. The supplier, not at all happy with the loss of their drugs, agrees to let them live if Wix can get some warp plasma from Voyager. Wix persuades Neelix in deeper, once again, but when Neelix tries to steal it, he can't bring himself to do it. However, to save their lives, he has a plan, which Wix reluctantly agrees to. He and Wix tell the truth about the incident to Bahrat, who is of course furious. But, they talk their way out of being put in cryostasis by explaining that these smugglers are defeating internal security, and that they will help catch the criminals when they return for the plasma. Expecting their attempt to be futile, the station master agrees. Neelix gets a canister from him with tainted warp plasma, and deactivates the safeties. When the criminal arrives, accepts the canister, and finds it to be worthless, Neelix tells him the canister has been leaking plasma into the room; any energy discharge from his weapon will burn up the entire section. Bahrat attempts to arrest them, the supplier fires, and the plasma fire knocks Neelix unconscious. When he reawakens, he discovers from the captain in sickbay that Wix has gone on his way, and that the supplier has been killed. Only then does Neelix come clean to the captain as to how the situation arose: he wanted a map, and got caught in a cover-up. After a stern lecture, Neelix prepares to take leave of the ship, but is barely able to contain his excitement when the captain explains to him this is a family, and he cannot just walk away. He is unaffected when she sentences him to two weeks of cleaning out the warp plasma manifold. Log entries *"Captain's log, supplemental. I have called a meeting of the senior staff to inform them of some very disturbing news I have just received." Background Information *Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) does not appear in this episode. *This episode marks the debut of the recurring character of Ensign Vorik, who was introduced prior to his character's central role in so that audiences would be familiar with the new crewman by then. Vorik reappeared at least once a season right up until the end of the series run. *The Voth scientists visit the Nekrit Expanse station in the episode while tracking down Voyager. The canister of warp plasma they acquire at the space station is an acknowledgment of the events of "Fair Trade", providing good continuity links between the episodes. However, the writers obviously forgot that Neelix destroyed it in the episode and that the warp plasma was a lower grade substitute. *James Horan's next Star Trek role is as First Ikat'ika in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes and . *This is Carlos Carrasco's only appearance in Voyager. He previously played D'Ghor in and a mirror universe Klingon in . His next and last Trek role was as Krole in . * Alexander Enberg (Vorik) makes his first appearance on Voyager. He is the son of co-creator Jeri Taylor. He also once played a similar character on TNG, another Vulcan named Taurik. Producer Jeri Taylor once suggested that Taurik and Vorik were twin brothers. * The weapon that Tosin levels at Neelix during the warp plasma undercover bust is the Varon-T Disruptor prop from TNG's "The Most Toys." Awards * This episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series. It beat out which was nominated in the same category. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.7, *As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection Links and references Guest stars *James Nardini as Wixiban *Carlos Carrasco as Bahrat *Alexander Enberg as Vorik *Steve Kehela as Sutok *James Horan as Tosin *Eric Sharp as the map dealer References 47; bio-mimetic gel; cryostatic suspension; deuterium maintenance; dilithium matrix; duotronic probe; environmental control; exhaust manifold; fire snake; gagh; gravitic caliper; impulse response filter; isonucleic residue; Kes; Kolaati; magnetic spindle bearing; Nekrit Expanse; Orillian lung maggot; pergium; type 2 phaser; plasma canister; plasma injector; plasma storm; reaction control assembly; replicator; rhuludian crystal; spectral analysis; toffa ale; Ubean; warp plasma; warp plasma particle External link * |next= }} de:Das Wagnis (VOY) es:Fair Trade nl:Fair Trade Category:VOY episodes